The French doubled their lead 66 seconds later as Benzema snapped up a stray pass, charged into the Swiss half and put away Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Matuidi, who fired inside Benaglio's near post.

The Swiss came perilously close to pulling a goal back as a Xhaka strike was ruled offside, then Xherdan Shaqiri's shot flew across the French goal.

There was drama in the 31st minute when Swiss defender Johan Djourou was aharshly adjudged to have fouled Benzema to give away a penalty, but his spot-kick was blocked by Benaglio and Cabaye's follow-up hit the crossbar.

France's third goal was textbook counter-attacking as Benzema claimed the ball after a Swiss corner and passe dto Rafael Varane who put Giroud into space on the left wing.

Without a defender near him, the Arsenal star sprinted away and squared for Valbuena at the far post to make it 3-0 after 40 minutes.

Benzema made up for his first-half penalty miss when he fired home replacement Paul Pogba's chip over the top midway through the second-half.

He then turned provider by putting Sissoko in space and the midfielder smashed his shot into the left-hand corner with 17 minutes remaining for France's fifth.

Dzemali finally got the hapless Swiss on the scoreboard when his freekick flew through the French wall nine minutes from time before Xhaka drilled home after a chip from Swiss captain Gokhan Inler.

Benzema put the ball in the net one more time but his "goal" came just a couple of seconds too late as the referee had already blown for full-time.

AFP

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